


a moment in time

by harleyhearts



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Australia, Awkwardness, Blushing, Exchange students, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Jetlag, Luggage, Meet-Cute, Nico is tired and nervous, POV Nico Minoru, Swearing, softies being soft!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29701317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harleyhearts/pseuds/harleyhearts
Summary: Nico accidently brings home the wrong suitcase. Annoying. The owner of said suitcase? Anything but annoying.
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	a moment in time

**Author's Note:**

> a soft and silly au just before femslash february comes to an end!! mwah!! these gfs are obviously my very favs and i miss them. so. not really much else to say. thank you to my number one boo Cat for beta reading as always, love ya baby!!! saviour for my self critical ass!!! <333 hope you all enjoy!

“You talk to any of the others yet?”

Nico frowns at her friend, hoping the signal’s clear enough for the picture to show him, “No.” Of course, Alex laughs. Idiot.

“Come on, Nico,” he tells her, absentmindedly rummaging through his fridge, of all things, “You can’t just be alone in Sydney for six months.”

And of course, she rolls her eyes at his response, as always. Deep down, she knows he means well, but really, his social butterfly self gets on her nerves from time to time.

“Why not?” she huffs, but with a kind of smile that tells Alex she doesn’t care about his life philosophies, without fearing making him upset. Or him being scared she’s upset. Mostly the ladder.

A beep of his microwave oven sounds in her headphones, “Nevermind, dummy.”

Maybe she misses her best friend, but it’s not like she’ll admit it as long as she lives. Anyway, the hotel room’s better than she expected once she arrives, the cool air of the airport and crowds of students approaching her in each their own language became all too much, too fast.

Nico’s not exactly a people person, as Alex says.

But also, baggage claim is the absolute worst. Don’t try to argue with her, won’t change her mind.

There really is no way to avoid it, but seriously, absolutely no personal space. It’s like a warzone, almost, because her fellow passengers can’t fucking wait a minute or two, and be damn polite?

It’s whatever, Nico’s just glad to finally have arrived.

She may have a little airplane anxiety. It’s embarrassing, but Alex, like the wonderful best friend who cares too much, crafted her a self care kit (his words, not hers). Maybe the obligatory pre-takeoff text helped with her restless hands. Shut up.

Soon as Alex says his goodbye, door closed, she’s back on her background noise playlist, eager for a shower and some long-awaited sleep. At this point jet lag can kiss her ass.

A look in the mirror reveals the mess of eyeliner she made when she rubbed sleep out of her eye for whatever low budget action movie had played on the tv system (terrible selection, seriously), oh well, the little hot water she gets access to does wonders for her headache.

Another reason why she avoids traveling by flight at all costs.

It’s a comforting thought she’ll be here for a while, though. Alex made this sound like an  _ all alone in the world _ thing, but Nico honestly doesn’t really mind.

With her parents, she’d been alone much of her childhood, anyway. Depressing, she knows.

She leaves the shower in a haze, hoodie and sweatpants right at her hand, and just catches Amy’s enthusiastic text full of heart emojis.

Ridiculous. But lovely.

Nico thinks that reply back is just about all she has energy left for, until the rumbling of her stomach clearly tells her otherwise. Fuck.

And, well, budget hotels infamous for exchange student parties rarely offer room service. It’s ten minutes of Nico panicking, almost going to the desperate point of having to leave the hotel room, find a vending machine, or some cafe nearby, which would require her to _ interact  _ with  _ people. _

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

It’s sort of embarrassing, or at least it would be, if anyone was here to see her. A small virtue.

But, hah, of course! The angel Amy truly is, Nico almost forgot the snacks her sister insisted on stuffing in her suitcase.

If she almost wants to cry of happiness, no, she doesn’t. She’s allowed to be a little overdramatic, okay?

Small emotional rollercoaster aside, she hurries for the luggage, surprisingly, struggling with finding the zipper. Not anything she takes time to think about much, given the circumstances, until she breaks it open and comes to a halt.

It does take a minute.

But this is definitely  _ not  _ Nico’s suitcase.

The exterior was familiar, but there’s absolutely zero doubt in her mind a mistake has been made when she’s met with a soft pink piece of fabric. With  _ fucking  _ lace.

Her stomach’s not turning with the thought of the outside world anymore, instead, she’s just weirded the hell out. Because she had never jotted herself down as easily distracted, but there’s a first time for everything, she supposes.

Nico simply shifts to a cross-legged position, staring at the pair of pastel colored scrunchies, white dress shirt, and brown tassel boots. She just wants to sleep, dammit.

But she can’t really ignore this kind of problem, really. 

She’s got her carry-on, of course, but like, she wants her  _ own things _ . All of them.

So, a careful investigation of the luggage is what she puts her mind to, trying not to mess up or pry too much in this stranger’s business. A postcard accompanied by a tiny silver cross pin causes her to snort.

Whoever this person is, by the looks of the suitcase’s content, is not exactly someone Nico would find herself hanging around with.

Whatever.

It takes way too long for her to find any sort of information on this stranger. Or, well, maybe just her sleep deprived mind missing the very obvious nametag on the back. Shut up.

The white laminated label tells her it belongs to a Karolina Dean.

Nico maybe stumbles over the address, the same state as herself, but who cares, it’s not like it’s any surprise. Her lucky stars also provided a phone number to the person, and she just can’t hurry enough.

What a mess.

*

Nico is stood in Sydney Airport at shit-o-clock in the morning, with a wrong suitcase and without sleep for fuck knows how many hours.

Needless to say, she can’t wait for this to be over already.

Funny enough, her strange companion got ahead of her, calling her at exactly the time she gathered the phone number. The voice was bright and a bit giggly, which would piss Nico off if she wasn’t so tired.

She’s still pissed, but mostly at herself.

So, of course, they agreed to meet back at the airport right away. This Karolina’s an exchange student as well, as she gathered, but located at another hotel. It’s probably decided according to their line of study, or something.

Nico would be lying if she said she knew what she was doing right now. She hopes she won’t have to explain this to Alex, he’ll only laugh his ass off, that’s for sure.

She’s been staring at the same five rerun commercials on the flatscreen, which surely won’t do any good to her burning eyes, when the voice from the phone call says her name. And honestly, she’s not sure what she expected from this meeting.

Nico stands up to a close to angelic girl.

Judge her all you want, but that’s about all the thought her brain’s forming right now.

Karolina Dean’s beaming a smile at her way too bright for this early in the morning, blonde braided hair and star-studded ears.

Fuck, okay, also, blue eyes nearly sparkling, or something. 

Nico doesn’t have to force a smile back at all.

She soon realises the mention of her name was a question, “Uh, yeah, Nico. Karolina, right?”, to which the taller girl nods.

“I’m so sorry about this,” she tells her, sighing, sounding almost like she ran all the way here, “So easily distracted.”

Maybe Nico almost gets angry from this beautiful stranger taking the blame all for herself. Maybe she wants to roll her eyes, but she doesn’t. Karolina doesn’t know her, and for some reason, she’s the kind of person Nico doesn’t want to disappoint. Or offend.

Instead, she shakes her head and shifts her weight from one foot to another, “I’d say we’re both equally to blame here.”

She also tries to laugh, which sounds very wrong in her own ears,  _ ugh _ , but her new companion maintains her sweet smile, too innocent and soft spoken, that Nico almost wants to cry again.

Anyway, she has to gather herself.

Status so far is that while she still desperately needs sleep, she is also faced with the problem of an extremely pretty girl in front of her. Pretty girls are somewhat of a weakness for her, as you can tell. Damn the universe for this.

So, what’s Nico to do about it?

Alex would most likely yell at her to get her number. Or, technically, she has the number already… but fuck, is this really the right time to  _ flirt _ ? Most likely not.

She’s admittedly also a very awkward flirter. Alex described her as such, which is a bit hypocritical when he’s just as bad himself. Scratch that, he’s worse, and Nico will remind him daily. A disaster pair of best friends they are, but Alex is right.

Luckily, Karolina seems a bit more cool-headed compared to the rut she’s stuck in herself, and the reason this meeting is taking place is handed over.

It’s hard to describe how much her body’s screaming for her to find her way back to bed as soon as possible, but even with her own stuff back, she hesitates.

The blonde still smiles, damn her, but takes on a wide-eyed expression, tugging on her fingers like she’s embarrassed, “I promise I didn’t mess up your stuff, I- sorry, I just. Your jacket’s really cool.”

Nico blinks.

And her companion seems to read her mind, cause she giggles, “I mean it! It made me want to know you.” Karolina soon after frowns at her own words, continuing with, “Sorry, that sounds…  _ so _ weird.”

_ You’re so fucking adorable _ , Nico thinks to herself, and honestly, just wishes this angel would stop apologising.  _ It’s sort of painful. _

Of course, she shakes her head at her companion’s words, because that’s somehow the most ridiculous thing she’s heard today. The last two days. Man, fuck timezones.

But somehow, it takes her way,  _ way _ too long to figure out why the blonde’s giving her a surprised face. And she blushes.

Because, of  _ fucking _ course, Nico can’t keep her thoughts  _ inside  _ her head.

So she gathers she’s just called her adorable, and Karolina’s fidgeting with the handle of her suitcase now, seemingly not being in a hurry to go anywhere, and she’s biting her lip.

It makes Nico’s head spin. Mostly the fact that the angel girl’s not fleeing the scene.

“Did I just say that out loud?”

The blonde nods.

“Fuck,” she finds herself saying, because whatever, it’s not like she can say anything more embarrassing than what just came out of her mouth, “I’m sorry. Can you, uh. Can we pretend it’s my sleep deprivation talking?”

Karolina’s curious to her. She tugs the wispy locks of hair behind her ears and looks at Nico like she’s sincerely considering her words.

It’s here she notices how close they’re actually standing, and that she’s breathing a tiny bit faster than normal. She’d scold herself like a loser, if her companion didn’t answer her question in such an unexpected way.

“I guess,” Karolina chuckles, but she’s fidgeting again, staring at her scuffed white sneakers with a meaningful look. 

And then it’s like she gains a new sort of determination, looks up at Nico, which definitely doesn’t make it easier for her to breathe. Her smile turns a bit mischievous. At this point, the lack of sleep might just make Nico hallucinate.

“But I’d rather have breakfast when we’re not sleep deprived. Heh, if- if you want to, of course.”

The blonde’s biting her lip again. Nope, Nico definitely heard that right, no sound hallucination or whatever.

Turns out this luggage switch was a blessing in disguise, huh. Fuck you if you accuse her of being cheesy, she doesn’t really care when a, yes, definite angel is looking at her expectantly, and maybe also has invited her to something resembling a date. Breakfast can be a date, right?

Needless to say, she’s never said yes to  _ anything _ as fast as this in her life.

And, needless to say, Nico’s never looked forward to waking up again as much as she does when she finally goes to bed, either.

**Author's Note:**

> if you've come this far and enjoy my work, come and say hi on my [tumblr](https://missorgana.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/empstrikesback) !!


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